al-Amthal wal-Hikam - al-Mawardi
- Author died
- 450 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Watan Lil-Nashr
al-Amthal wal-Hikam (Proverbs and Aphorisms) is an ethical and literary anthology of prophetic traditions, proverbs, aphorisms, and wisdom poetry compiled by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi (364–450 AH / 975–1058 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
The work is dedicated to moral education, the reform of individual and communal conduct, and the cultivation of virtues while warning against vices . In compiling the text, al-Mawardi sought to gather concise, memorable statements—drawing from the prophetic Sunnah, the sayings and proverbs of Arab, Persian, and Byzantine sages, and ethical verses from notable poets—to serve as accessible guides for practical wisdom and spiritual refinement . Modern scholarship suggests that it was among al-Mawardi's earlier writings, as it relies primarily on compilation and selection; he later reused many of its maxims and citations in his mature works, including Adab al-Dunya wal-Din (The Ethics of Religion and the World), Qawanin al-Wizarah (The Ordinances of the Ministry), Tashil al-Nazar, and Durar al-Suluk fi Siyasat al-Muluk .
Structure and Method
According to the author's stated framework, the book is organized into ten chapters (fusal), each designed to contain thirty hadiths, thirty aphorisms, and thirty poetic verses, totaling three hundred items in each category across the work . Textual analysis shows slight deviations from this numerical scheme in execution; for instance, the third chapter contains twenty-nine hadiths while the fourth contains thirty-one, and the second, seventh, and tenth chapters each contain twenty-nine poetic verses rather than thirty .
Although al-Mawardi did not explicitly name his source texts in the introduction, his selections draw heavily on foundational works of adab, lexicography, and paremiology, including:
- Jamharat al-Amthal by Abu Hilal al-Askari
- al-Durrah al-Fakhirah fil-Amthal al-Sa'irah by Hamzah al-Isfahani (d. 351 AH)
- al-Fara'id wal-Qala'id by Abu al-Hasan al-Ahwazi (d. c. 331 AH)
- al-Bayan wal-Tabyin by al-Jahiz
- al-Kamil fil-Lughah wal-Adab by al-Mubarrad
- Uyun al-Akhbar by Ibn Qutaybah
- al-Fakhir by al-Mufaddal ibn Salama (d. 291 AH)
- The linguistic and literary transmissions of Abu Amr ibn al-Ala
Reception and Attribution
Most classical biographical dictionaries did not list the work explicitly, noting only that al-Mawardi was prolific in authorship, though Ibn Taghribirdi explicitly recorded al-Amthal among his compositions . Modern bibliographers such as Carl Brockelmann, Jurji Zaydan, Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli, and Omar Farrukh documented the work as an extant manuscript attributed to al-Mawardi . The orientalist Rudolf Sellheim conflated the work with al-Mawardi's separate monograph on Quranic proverbs, Amthal al-Qur'an, whereas al-Mawardi authored two distinct treatises on the subject .
Manuscripts and Editions
The text is preserved in several manuscript copies, including:
- A manuscript in Leiden University Library (MS Warner 382, within collection 655), consisting of sixty-nine folios written in an eastern hand dated to the ninth century AH, which attributes the work to al-Mawardi under the kunya Abu al-Husayn .
- A manuscript in the Western Library of the Great Mosque in Sana'a (MS 115, folios 62–122), titled al-Adab al-Nabawiyyah wal-Hikam al-Rushdiyyah wal-Ash'ar al-Hukmiyyah, which breaks off incomplete in the tenth chapter without naming the author .
- Copies preserved in Alexandria and in the Ahmet III Library in Istanbul .
The work remained unprinted for nearly ten centuries until it was edited and published by Fu'ad Abd al-Mun'im Ahmad in Riyadh in 1420 AH / 1999 CE .
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